Meena Devi. V. N et al. Int. Res. J. Pharm.

2013, 4 (6)
INTERNATIONAL RESEARCH JOURNAL OF PHARMACY
www.irjponline.com ISSN 2230 – 8407
Research Article

ANNATTO: ECO-FRIENDLY AND POTENTIAL SOURCE FOR NATURAL DYE

Meena Devi. V. N.1*, Ariharan V. N.2 and Nagendra Prasad P2
1
Department of Physics, Noorul Islam Centre for Higher Education, Noorul Islam University, Kumaracoil, Tamilnadu, India
2
Department of Biomedical Engineering, Noorul Islam Centre for Higher Education, Noorul Islam University, Tamilnadu,
India
*Corresponding Author Email: vndevi@gmail.com

Article Received on: 11/03/13 Revised on: 08/04/13 Approved for publication: 11/05/13

DOI: 10.7897/2230-8407.04623
IRJP is an official publication of Moksha Publishing House. Website: www.mokshaph.com
© All rights reserved.

ABSTRACT
India has a vital monopoly in their production and application of natural colors obtained from leaves, flowers and fruits. After the invention of synthetic dyes,
natural dyes were forgotten and abandoned as a part from history because of its negligence. Due to the environmental and health hazard problems caused by
the synthetic dyes, now people are more concerned about the usage of natural dyes during the last two decades. Botanists have identified more than 450 dye
yielding plants that naturalized in India. The natural dyes are fast in staining, long-lasting, renewable, bio-degradable and eco-friendly. Now-a-days, natural
dyes have entered into the textile, food, pharmaceutical, cosmetics, fiber, leather and paint industries. In the present study, the usage of the dye obtained from
Annatto (Bixa orellana) is evaluated.
Keywords: Natural dye, Bixa orellana, mordant, solvents, fastness properties.

INTRODUCTION
At present worldwide there is a growing trend towards the
usage of natural colors in various industries due to the
environmental hazards caused by the excessive use of
synthetic dyes. Synthetic dyes are produced from cheap
petroleum sources and show superior fastness properties1. It
is estimated that nearly 10, 00,000 tones of synthetic dyes
were used per annum. The usage of vast amount of synthetic
dye causes pollution, disturbs the ecological balance and
causes health hazards to human beings2. Because of this,
Germania government was the first to ban the manufacturing
of synthetic dyes. Netherlands, India and some other
countries also followed the ban3. At present, research is
focused to find out alternative dyes for food and clothing’s
and it should be ecofriendly, readily available, cost effective
and safe to use both in food materials and fabrics. The only
alternative way is to use natural dyes based on plant or
animal origin. The usage of the plant based natural dyes is
traced back to ancient civilization. The paintings of Ajanta,
Ellora and Bagh caves are made by plant based natural dyes
and still are preserved as valuable monuments by
Archeological Survey of India. In India, nearly 450 plants are
known to yield dyes4. Among this, 50 plant are found to be
more efficient dye yielding plant5,6. The raw material for the
production of natural dyes is mostly vegetable matter such as
seeds, leaves, roots, barks and flowers. Out of 50 plants, ten
of these are from the roots, four from barks, five from leaves,
seven from flowers, seven from fruits, three from seeds, eight
from wood, three from gums and three from resins7. In the
present study, an alternative dye yielding plant, Annatto
(Bixa orellana L.) was studied for its potentiality for dyeing
food and fabrics. Annatto seed extract is a natural dye, which
is obtained from the outer coatings of the seeds of Bixa
orellana L., belonging to the family Bixaceae. Although the
plant species originated in northern South America and now
it is naturalized India and widely cultivated in tropical areas
for commercial production8-10. Annatto extract has natural
carotenoid and is used in the food industry, mainly in dairy
products such as cheese and butter11,12. It has been considered
safe for human consumption13,14. The two major components
of the extracts are oil soluble bixin and water soluble
norbixin are widely used for the colouring of food,
pharmaceutical and cosmetic products, to give yellow to red
hues15. Siva and Krishnamurthy5,6 studied the pigment
content Bixa orellena. Mordants and dyes will have different
effects depending on the fibers used (cellulosic or protein)16.
In the present study, the seed extracts were applied to cotton
fibre, cotton cloth, silk fiber and chart paper to evaluate their
efficiency as a coloring material.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Bixa orellana L. fruits were peeled off to collect the seeds.
The seeds were dried and powdered. The extraction of the
dye from powdered Bixa orellana seed was obtained by using
four different solvents namely acetone, ethanol, water and
hexane with different polarity. 100g of sample was weighed
and taken in a round bottom flask and 500ml of solvent was
added to it. The seed was extracted with the four different
solvents and kept in a separate bottle. To a part of the dye,
0.5ml of 1% mordant was added (potash alum) and the other
part left as normal extract without mordant. Four different
sample materials- cotton, gauze cloth, silk threads and chart
paper (white) were used to evaluate the dyeing efficiency. A
known weight of about 3grams of the 4 different sample
materials were taken and dyed naturally with dye and
mordant and dye without mordant of different solvent
extracts. The materials were then dried in hot air oven at
about 60°C for half an hour. Then the dyed material is
washed with water and detergent to determine the retention of
the color. Bright and dull shades were found out and rated.
Light fastness was analyzed by exposing the dyed materials
to direct sunlight for 24hrs.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Annatto seed extraction was found to be orange- red colour.
The colour of the dye also depends on the solvent used for
the extraction. In the present study, colours variation was
noted for different solvent extraction. The proximate analysis
of color identification in the extracted dye is given in Table 1.
A rating of good, fair and poor is given to the materials on
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 Meena Devi. V. N et al. Int. Res. J. Pharm. 2013, 4 (6)
the basis of retention of the stain after different treatments. orellana) seeds contain high quantities of pigments, in that
The order of rating of fastness to detergent washing and apocarotenoid bixin being the most abundant23. Bixin is the
rubbing among the four different solvents in general were most commonly used natural industrial colorant24. Siva et al
shown in Table 1. in 2008 reported the dye has characteristics similar to that of
bromophenol blue and shows no interference with any of the
Table 1: Proximate analysis of Color and rating of the dye in different test proteins. Besides, it can also be used for cell staining.
solvent extracts Since the acetocarmine is a costly insect based dye
Solvents Colour Rating commonly used for cell staining. Natural dye from annatto
Acetone Brick red Good
may serve as a best alternate to acetocarmine. In addition to
Ethanol Moderate red Fairly good
the dyeing properties, annatto is noted for its medicinal value.
Water Red Fair
The leaves and roots of Annatto is used in the treatment of
diabetes25, hypertension, jaundice26 dropsy27 eye infection,
Hexane Pale yellow to golden Poor
heart pain, prostate inflammation, anorexia, diarrhea, wound
healing, kidney-complaints and even to cancer. Annatto used
The rating of staining shades among the four different samples were found to
be more in cotton cloth and less in chart paper. The rating of staining shades to paint on the bodies and arrows28. The leaves and seeds of
was found to be in a medium range in silk fiber and cotton fiber. Bixa orellana also showed a broad spectrum of antimicrobial
activity with the leaves showing higher activity. Dye obtained
Table 2: Rating of fastness properties of Bixa orellana dye from Annatto is used in the preparation of lipstick, cosmetics
Solvents Cotton fiber Cotton cloth Silk fiber Chart
paper and soaps29.
Acetone Fair Good Good Fair
Ethanol Good Good Good Fair CONCLUSION
Water Fair Good Good Fair The usage of synthetic dyes was done commercially for
Hexane Fair Good Good Fair attractive colors but it is hazardous to skin and environment.
Usage of natural dyes obtained from Bixa orellana in textile
Table 3: Rating of fastness properties of dye + mordant finishing has good light fastness and may help in keeping the
skin healthy by preventing from allergy reduce the risk of
Solvents Cotton fiber Cotton Silk fiber Chart skin cancer. The dye obtained is biodegradable and non-
cloth paper
Acetone Good Good Good Good
toxic. The natural dye obtained from Bixa orellana also has
Ethanol Good Good Good Fair
medicinal properties and finds its application traditionally in
Water Good Good Good Fair
the preparation of sindhoors. Due to lack of the botanical
knowledge and the precise technical knowledge on the
Hexane Fair Good Good Fair
extraction and dyeing procedure, the natural dye has not
commercially succeeded like synthetic dyes. Natural dye
Table 2 and 3 give the details of fastness properties of dye from Bixa orellana is evaluated in the present study and
towards washing. It is observed that the fastness of cotton showed better result in staining of cotton cloth, silk fiber and
cloth and silk fiber on acetone, ethanol, water and hexane cotton fiber. The dye is cheap, soothing, long lasting and has
extracts of the dye alone had a bright shade when compared anti- microbial property. Because of its antimicrobial
with those of dye extracts with mordant which is in dull property, its usage in dyeing Band-Aid cloth will be helpful
shade. Similarly the material treated with hexane extracted for fast wound healing. The dye may find an effective use in
dye alone retains a bright shade on cotton fiber compared to advanced medical immunological field as a gel tracking dye.
dye with mordant. It was found that the acetone, ethanol and The application of annatto found to be easy, more practical
hexane extracted dye with mordant retains bright shade in and reliable. In future, the natural dye serves eco-friendly
chart paper compared to treatment with dye alone. This agent for the clean and green environment.
showed that the solvents used for dye extraction plays a
significant role in fixing the dye indeed without the mordant. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
It is well known that colorants from synthetic sources can be The author PN Prasad is grateful to DST for the financial support to carry out
harmful and cause allergic to humans17. 8/Therefore natural the research work. The authors are thankful to The Chancellor, Noorul Islam
dyes have increased considerably during the last few years. University for his constant encouragement for doing research work.
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Cite this article as:
Meena Devi. V. N., Ariharan V. N. and Nagendra Prasad P. Annatto: Eco-
friendly and potential source for natural dye. Int. Res. J. Pharm. 2013;
4(6):106-108
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